Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) admitted Wednesday that he
is rooting for Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination.

During a CNN town-hall event, Sanders told moderator
Anderson Cooper that he liked his odds against the
real-estate mogul.

"Frankly, I'm prejudiced: I want Trump to win the Republican
nomination," Sanders said. "I would love the opportunity to run
against him. I think we'd win."

Sanders pointed out earlier in the night that
some hypothetical head-to-head matchups showed Sanders
in a better position than his rival Hillary Clinton to defeat
Trump in the general election.

The Vermont senator railed against Trump during Wednesday's town
hall. He criticized the tycoon for his plan to deport
the approximately 11 million immigrants living in the US
without permission, as well as his plan to ban many Muslim
tourists and immigrants from entering the US.

"It is not only his bigoted remarks against Latinos, suggesting
Mexicans coming into this country are rapists or drug
dealers. Or his absurd remark that we should not let Muslims into
this country," Sanders said.

Sanders also mocked Trump for his views on wages and climate
change.

"Trump in a Republican debate said wages are too high in America. Really? Here's
the other one that kind of blows me away: Trump is a scientist, a
well-known scientist. And he has concluded, after years of
studying the issue, that climate change is a hoax brought to you
by the Chinese. Now that shocked me, Anderson, because I thought
he'd say the Mexicans or the Muslims."

For his part, Trump said last month that he'd also love to
run against Sanders.

"We haven't even focused on, I mean here's a guy who's a — they
say socialist, but some people say he's a communist," Trump
continued. "I shouldn't hit him too hard though, because if I hit
him too hard then he'll go down, and it'll be a fight with
Hillary, and maybe we want a fight for a while. So I'll say,
'Isn't he a wonderful guy?'"

Later on Wednesday, Trump asserted on Twitter that Sanders
doesn't actually want to run against the real-estate magnate.

Sanders says he wants to run against me because he doesn't want to run against me. He would be so easy to beat!